STAGE GOSSIP

Otago Witness, Issue 2883, 23 June 1909, Page 77

STAGE GOSSIP

Mr Oscar Athe, Miss Lily JSrayton, and ?4faS£" y are vow " ell on *•* ™* *» from Adelaide on the 24th. inst. to star in a 11 ew p. ay. - Tlie West Picture management is about to erect a picture Iheatra in Melbourne adjacent to the Olympia at a cost cf £6000 It is said Mr George Mu?grov« intends reviving his gorgeous productions or "A Midsummer Night's Dr«am" and' "As You Like It" shortly.

-k, Sydney paper quotas a statement that Meioa is selling har London hcusa, and intends io lire in Australia, where her son is r.ow sei'Jed.

J. O. Williamson's next dramatic production is to be " The Flag- Lieutenant," which lias just concluded- its 400 th performance at tne Playhouse, London. -Messrs ileyaell ' and - Guan a.r-e making preparations for staging pantomime "on a splandid scsle in boili Sydney ' and' Melbourne next -Christmas- •

To© Slapoffski .experiment of .pr^£«ntii3<g Gzvitl "-opera in concert -platform "shape met ■\7i<h some success tovrards ihe end of the Sydney season, and will most probably be t'ivea a further trial.

Jack Johnson, champion pugilist, is to appear in the National Sporting Ciub scene in " SporKng Life." the" nlay to be produced by Mr Seymour Hicks at the Aldwych Theatre, London, this month.

Miss Boxy Barton, late of the Willouehby<r*acli Company, is playin? the part of Maggie Brown in "An .Englishman's Home" in one of tho corn-Denies that i3jtakin<j that play round the English provinces. Miss Ke,te How&rde. who has b«en in England for some time is on hex way to Australia with some of the lates-t plays and several players. Ste says there are many Australians . in England who weuld lik« to he back on their native heath. The French cinematograph film manufacturers, who are now establishing branches in Australia,, claim to have discovered a colour process, and recently they exhibited in Melbourne fcropioal scene's in the Sunda Islands, showing tie rich green bamboo foliace.

Mr and Mrs Ka.rry Quesly shortly leave Australia with the other members of Pollard's Juvenile Opera, Company on a tour of China.- Japan, India, and America. Mrs Quealy takes charge of the- childr-en of the cwnpan7, "and her husband is to be sts^a man*.«er.

" The Merry "Widow " ha-s passed the second year of its career at Daly's Theatre^, London, and Mr J. A. E. Malone in a recent lettsi. considers that it has not nearly reached the end of it 9 tether yet. New Zealand audiences are at present enjoying the Australian production of the Lehar onera.

Among the visitors to- London at present are two remarkable "nrodigi&s — a Jitfle airl (PilaT Osorio) and aT boy (Pepito Arriola). Tte former is a baby pianist only three vesrs of n?e, and tie lati.sr is her .=teDorother, who was born- at Ferrol. Spain, in 1896. snd who has been heard in London previously.

Avon Saxton. a <vne-tim<e famous sing«r. died at Berwick. United States, in Ma roll. aged 52. At the. height of his career lie joined the Carl Hosa Opera Company, in England, and bad Hie honour of pina-ing before Que«n "Victoria and several of the royal heads of Europe. He travelled and pang in South America, Australia. Great Britain. Europe, and all over North America in his time.

Cinquevalli is credited with being one of the most learned of vaudeville artists. AsS linguist he shines, the langnsges he ppeak-a fluently including French. German. English. Polish," and! Italian. He plays the" violin, mandolin, and piano, and on one occasion rather astonished a private audience 'by -playing his own accompaniment on tlie piano at tbe same time as he played the violin. "Ab-You Like It" has been added to the renertoir'e of the- Nellie Stewart Company. The irnlatncholy Jacques will be impersonated by Mr Claude Kin?. Orlando by Mr Langhorne Burton. Touchstone by Mr Hprry AshforoL Miss Roslyn Vane will appear as Celia. Miss Harriet- Trench as Audrey, Mr Frederick Moves as the ■bauisljeck Duke, Mr Alfred Tapping as Adtxm. and Miss Marjory ChaTd as Phoabe. the shepherdess of Arden. The Rosalind ■will, of course, fee Miis Stewart. Adelaide playgoers did not see "As You Like It' 5 after all during the recent Nellie Stewart season in that city. The piece was fully rehear sed, and quite ready for •Drpduetion, but " Sweet Kitty Bellairs " and " Sweet Nell of Old I&'uxy " proved go much

to the Ijking of playgoers .in the South Australian capital that it was not considered necessary to stage the Shakespearean comedy. So the hope of seeing Miss Stewart as Rosalind is deferred for the present, though, it may be considered as a pieasnre to come.

According to an actor just returned from .England,, iiie stage there is in a. ver3 r bad way, especially in 'London. The legitimate has almost disappeared ; in fact, there is only one theatre in London where the legitimate is being played, and then there ii is not by any means consistent. Everything is musical comedy "with plenty of leg." Musical entertainments in which tLero is a great array of girls are in great demand. The music halls, too, sre jumping ahead, but in these some fine entertainments are given. Mr M-artm Harvey has in his company the oldest, living actor in active work on the E-nglLsh stage. This is Mr Fred "Wright, who, in' "The Only Way," plays Dr M-anette, and in "The Last Herr" takes the character of the landlord. He was bom 83 -<-&2rs ago, and made his first appearance on the stage in 1854. itr Herman Vezin is generally styled "tha father of the stage ' by virtue of the fact that ke had his first engagement .in 1850 — this being at the Theatre Eoyal, York — but in the matter of age ho is two or three years Mr Wright's junicr. Calve, the famous singer, is at present performing in London. As a news item this statement^ can hardly rbe classed as startling, but it •becomes interesting to Ans'ira'ians when it is also announced that the performances are under the management of Messrs J. and-JN. Tait. The extension of this firm's operations is certainly a note•vecrthy feature of Austrnlien enterprise.- The Taita have also arranged ;o; o tour tlie Ea'.i and South Africa with the Besses o' the Barn Band, prior to bringing that most successful company on a second \visit to Australia.

Australians of the bsck country say ihat the average stag-e aboriginal is as untrue to type as tbe stage Irishman or the stage Scotchman or the stage Jew. Probably (.be most convincing type of aboriginal will b& peen in Terribit the b]?<:ktif clrer of Randolph Bedford's play, "White Australia, or the E-mpty North,;' to be produced within a few" w-eeks at the Kine's Theatre, Melbourne. The author should know the ahjriginal R3 he is — a humorous, hard-h&adod, spntimen'tal. Cold-blood-ed roan, with stiong idea 3en the subservience of woman. Terribit should be one of the best character studies of the play AJteJ her concert tonr through Australasia, which Messrs J. and N". Tait ore arranging, it '= the intention of Miss Castles to sing in grand oiDera. in Eurore. She signed to sing at Cologne, but fell ill, and had to cancel all engagements. L<r.t<;T on, after con-(ra-ctiua to tcur Great Britain as the stain the Harrison concerts, she was offered <he leading parts in three operas for the !Moi)t> Carlo season, an offer wliieh. of course, she wa« forced to decline Puccini expressed a desire to hear her in his opera '" La Tcsca," rri this wish is regardori as Hie uicst graceful compliment ever paia in her sin^irg by Miss Castle?. Caruso had heard the youm? Australian sing the .prayer from " La Tosca," and was so enthusiastic that he arranged a, punper warty with the cie'iberate object of introducing the composer of "La Boheme " to Miss Castles.